Sermons about Lovingkindness

The climate of the culture in Hosea very closely resembles our own. We too are guilty of going through the motions with God. We too offer him half-hearted discipleship while chasing the idols in our lives. Praise God for His steadfast love (hesed) which never let’s go of us!

This Psalm begins with a foundational premise that all believers need to keep in mind - Be grateful to God all the time and in all things. Why? Because God is good and God is merciful. Our faith in the goodness and the lovingkindness of God will give us hope in the most desperate situations of life. The Psalmist tells us about the homeless wanderer, the rebel in bondage, the afflicted fool and the storm tossed traveler. Each in dire straits, each in need of deliverance that only God could provide. And when they cried out to the Lord, He delivered them out of their distresses in a most wonderful way. But the last verse of the Psalm is very instructive as well - not only for those in distress, but also for those observing those who are in distress. Every one of us can benefit from the wisdom of this Psalm.

The Hebrew terms emet and hesed are prominent in Genesis 24. It reveals that the emphasis is on God's faithfulness and lovingkindness or steadfast love that he sets upon his covenant people. God's people are to trust in God's faithfulness and steadfast love and we do this as we pray for its demonstration and our discernment of it, and speak and act consistent with it. And yet the history of God's people as exemplified in the account of Abraham's servant going to get a wife for Isaac reveals that such prayers, speech and actions are only produced by God because he is faithful to his covenant promise and thereby demonstrates his lovingkindness or steadfast love.